URGENT PUSH TO STOP HB 4153A, THE STORES ON FARMLAND BILL

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HB 4153A would require counties to permit retail stores, delis, pubs, restaurants, commercial kitchens, and event venues of any kind on Exclusive Farm Use zoned land. It would prevent counties from doing anything to protect surrounding farms or place any enforceable limits on things like daily attendance or siting.

Nearly 100 Hood River County residents submitted testimony on this horrendous bill, with 93% opposed. An amendment proposed by Friends of Family Farmers, as well as your concerns, were dismissed by the House Committee. We urgently need a final push to stop this bill if it moves to the full House or Senate. Even if you have already called or emailed legislators, please do so again, and encourage others to do the same by March 2nd.

How to help

 There are two ways we recommend doing this:

 1. Send a letter to your legislators

1000 Friends of Oregon has created a pre-filled letter opposing HB 4153A for you to send to your legislators. It’s ready to just sign and send if you’re in a hurry, but we also encourage you to make it yours! Adding personal details like how HB 4153A would impact your own farm, your neighbors, and/or your community makes an email like this extra powerful. We also included some additional talking points below.

 Send a letter to your legislators by March 2nd.

2. Call your legislators

Step 1: Use the link below to find your legislator and their phone number.

Step 2: Plan and practice what you’ll say. Keep your message short and clear. The most important details to share are where you live and that you are against HB 4153A. You can use the talking points below, or the wording from the suggested letter to legislators (linked above).

Step 3: Call your legislator’s office! Note that it is likely you will either end up speaking to a member of their staff or leaving a voicemail. Either way, they will keep a record of your call and the more voices they hear from, the more impact this will have.

Look up your legislator here

Suggested talking points: We say…

  • YES to farmer-owned and operated stores, restaurants, and event venues inside our cities and small towns.
  • YES to direct sales for farmers under existing farm stand provisions that require farming to remain the predominant use.
  • YES to listening to the will of Oregonians: 70% of people who submitted testimony earlier this month were against HB 4153. This represents over 1,000 farmers and their supporters from all across the state who do NOT want this bill to pass.
  • NO to shifting agriculture to the back burner and allowing commercial nonfarm activities as a primary use on farmland.
  • NO to incentivizing nonfarm commercial development on less expensive, lower taxed farmland.
  • NO to ignoring commercial development impacts on neighboring farms.
  • NO to passing a bad bill now and potentially spending $1 million or more to fix it later (due to Measure 56).